Sept. 4.
The nations concerfied in to-day's fateful meeting of the Council of the League at Geneva require divine wisdom for the proper guidance of their actions, The Pope, courageously associating himself with Christian thought elsewhere and, indeed, giving a Practical lead to peaceful endea-your, has brushed aside irrelevancies and firmly expressed his condemnation of war in general, jand a war of conquest in particular. His Holiness is statesman as well spiritual mentor. His offer of! his services in the cause of media tion is met by the intimation that Italian Catholics stand behind Signor Mussolini. That view is apparently endorsed by the glowing accounts of demonstrations in various Italian towns and by the undeniable evidence of military and naval preparations tuned to on this Abyssinian issue, It transcends the question of" the con-Xinuance or breakdown of the League as an instrument of peace-construction. It dismisses quibbles over Italy's economic disabilities or JAbyssinian backwardness or the alleged disingenuity of individual nations. It directs attention to the basic charge: that no nation, by virtue of the sanctions of the munition factory, has the right forcibly to dispossess another of its freedom of action. On the broad ground of humanity it denies validity to the plea that the sins of an independent people can be chastised by the superior armed might of another merely because economic and political advantages are to accrue' to the aggressor therefrom.
All else is irrelevant. If there be means within the capacity of other nations to compass for remedying] the deficiencies which Signor Mussolini alleges drive him. to his Present desperate course, they can bbe examined in the due' place and season. There is no cause imagine that such examination requires as a condition precedent the Butchery of Ethiopian braves. Nor freed Ttaly submit to the process with loss of dignity. Discussion of ner case has gradually revealed an international "sense of responsi Ditty for the fair distribution of facilities for economic livelihood, whether of individuals or of nations. That sense may be. slow tin attaining practical expression, The process cannot be expedited by ithe destruction of such machinery jas now feebly functions in that regard. It will not be encouraged by dyeing the tropical verdure or the desert tawniness of Ethvopia with Ttalian and Abyssinian blood, The empty homes of Calabria, the lonely Italian graves on the African littoral will not contribute practical solutions to such a problem. On the contrary the development of the technique necessary to brace the Italian nation for this war of conquest has let loose all the noxious vapours of international mistrust," suspicion and dishonesty in thought and deed. From them Integrity cannot derive.
Under the shadow of a dominant fear the world looks to Geneva today. "As Italy Is exhorted to avoid the use of force, so force cannot be threatened or employed to dissuade her. The Covenant's conception of jcanctions was clear-cut and based jon conditions which bitter experience of the since vanished years has proved to be ephemeral. No sanctions could be applied by the League in its present state without aggravating and extending the very evil which the League seeks to avert. Italy's accusations. against Ethiopia could be judicially examined and justice thereon dispensed, but they are accompanied a threat which vitiates their sincerity. Whether.in discussion the Council can induce Italy to eliminate a clear obstacle to its free consideration of the issues involved the event will show. The portents jate not favourable. Humanly. speaking, the Italian adventure seems fo be inevitable. The (Geneva discussions have, it would seem, little hope of being more than formal salutes of a foregone admission of failure. There is just the bare chance that the unexpected turn given to events during the last few days may provoke so demonstrably frank an assurance of Franco-British sympathy with {italy's reputable aspirations that Signor Mussolini can be shown the honourable way out of his apparently iron-bound commitments. Moreover the gathering force of june world's united repudiation of the doctrines by which Italy's [Leader has fortified his policy may ynelp to strengthen the enfeebled bands of Geneva. It will be readily [agreed that these are slender stra for the grasp of a drowning, Jcause. Fear broods ominously over [the scene. Only 2 miracle can oust it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.